Assembly of Nanoparticles and Small Molecules on Graphene and Their Nonlinear Optical Limiting Properties

WU HUABING

Publication

Assembly of Nanoparticles and Small Molecules on Graphene and Their Nonlinear Optical Limiting Properties

WU HUABING

Abstract

Graphene, as a two dimensional macromolecule, can be non-covalently functionalized by organic small molecules as well as inorganic nanoparticles to form graphene hybrids. However, due to the relatively weak interactions between graphene and other molecules, the functionalization of graphene is usually problematic which significantly limits its applications. Therefore, we carefully chose two conjugated planar organic molecules which can strongly interact with graphene as probes to investigate the synergetic effects between them. In another case, we devised a novel, two-phase strategy to deposit nanoparticles onto graphene which successfully led to high coverage. In all these cases, due to the properly aligned molecular orbitals which facilitate the electron or energy transfer between the two components in the hybrids, the electronic and electrochemical properties of graphene have been tailored. In addition, interesting nonlinear optical limiting properties could also arise from this hybridization which render them potential applications in protection of sensitive optical devices.